Method for selecting terminating gateways for an internet telephone call using a tree search

A tree search method for selecting one or more servers for terminating an Internet telephone call. The tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each having a digit field, an object field, and a children array field. If the object of the current node is not null, it is added to a list of suitable equipment. A prefix parameter is formed from part of a destination telephone number and used to index into a children array to find a sub-tree node. If that array element is not null, the search is recursively applied to that node by passing the stripped prefix parameter and the result list. The search walks down the tree consuming the available digits in the prefix parameter and accumulating entries in the list of servers that can terminate the call.